Postgame Quotes

(Opening statement)“I was really proud of our team, after coming off what was a really tough loss for us at Carolina. It was a hard one to get out of your craw. The reason [is] because we had opportunities and we kind of didn’t do the things that we thought we were capable of doing. This week, in practice, we challenged each other, coaches and players alike, to really make sure that we had the details. One of the things that, for the first time, a week ago, we didn’t do was out-physical the other team when we tackled them. Today, that changed. I thought it may have been our best tackling game of the season. The guys came ready to really get after them. To take it away as many times as we did, on special teams and on defense, four times on defense, and then the sacks, to get after the quarterback, a mobile guy like him – that was important. I felt like we protected our quarterback. That was a huge emphasis. There was pressure, but he got sacked, I think, one time, against the team that leads the National Football League in sacks. I thought special teams played very well. We had opportunities, maybe, that we could’ve really played super, but I thought we played well. It was a good team victory, one that the guys will enjoy here, then we’ve got a huge challenge, to try to win four straight at home here to end the season; that’s something that our players really want to do, so we’ll go to work and try to get that accomplished.”

(On what creates takeaways)“I think [it’s] pass rush and pass coverage working together. I think [Defensive Coordinator] Bill [Sheridan] and the defensive guys are doing a great job of mixing up coverages, so we’re playing some vision and break coverages, we’re playing some man-to-man coverages, mixing them up. But I think it all comes down to making the quarterback just a little bit uncomfortable. It’s not always sacks; sometimes it’s just getting that hand in the quarterback’s face so he has to alter his release just a little bit. We’ve talked about that over at the facility a lot. They’re seeing the ball and they’re catching it, and they’re working on tipped balls and things like that. We do that circuit that you see all the time [in practice], that takeaway circuit. One of the things we added was that tipped-ball part of it, which seems a little ‘High School Harry,’ but we went from not getting tipped-ball interceptions to all of a sudden [getting] a bunch of them. That stuff is paying off for the guys.”

(On linebacker Lavonte David)“I think he is playing as well as any linebacker in the league, I really do. He does everything: tackle, [defend the] pass, blitz. There’s nothing that guy can’t do. He’s a really fine football player and, as I’ve said before, just even a better person. You can’t ask for a better work ethic, everything about the guy. He’s special.”

(On David’s two interceptions)“He can run so well. He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he’s big enough but he can run like a safety. Then he plays relentlessly, he plays with tremendous effort, and he just goes to the football relentlessly. When you do that – people call it luck, [but] I don’t think it’s luck; you make your own luck by playing hard.”

(On running back Bobby Rainey’s 80-yard touchdown run)“I thought it was a tremendous run – second play of the game and, wow, he’s out of the gate. You knew they were going to play a lot of press coverage – that’s what they do – so sometimes, when you make that safety miss, if you can get it to the second level, it’s a footrace. I didn’t know if he was going to outrun everybody; I haven’t seen him in that position. I was really pleased to see that. Again, our running back depth keeps looking better and better and that’s exciting.”

(On quarterback Mike Glennon’s stat line from today’s game)“We did pull in the reins a little in the second half, but I would agree. You know, the one interception, [wide receiver] Vince [Jackson] fell down, so that’s a tough one, but the other interception – he’d like to have that throw back. It’s a play that he needs to throw it higher, and it’s Vince’s catch or nobody’s catch – he either goes out of bounds or Vince makes one of those great catches that he makes. But I’ll tell you, Vincent really showed up – again, just big-boy football, in that end zone, just getting [the defender] off; I mean the guy held him, almost dragged him down, [but] he still caught it. I didn’t see the play. You can’t really see it that well on the field. I can’t wait to see it on TV, the one in the back of the end zone.”

(On how David makes the defense better)“There’s certain types of leaders: there’s vocal leaders, there’s leaders by example. Lavonte is a leader by example, unquestionably – his work ethic, his attention to detail, his practice habits. If you could say, how do you want a guy, as a Buc, to perform, you [would] just point to him. Now, as of late, he’s become more of a vocal leader. I think it’s just comfort. I think it’s, ‘I’m not a rookie anymore, I’m a second-year player.’ Again, he’s never going to be a man of many words, but when he speaks, people listen.”

(On if the team is much better now than they were in the first half of the season)“I don’t know if it’s that much of a difference, really. We’re finding ways to win the game, but I mean, against good football teams [earlier in the year], we were in games, [but] we just found ways to lose games; literally, you look at it and say we invented ways to lose some games. I’m just worried about where we are now. We’ve got a heck of an opponent coming in Sunday, so we’ve got our work cut out for us. I know our guys are excited about it. It was a physical game [today], so we’re going to have to see how we fare. We don’t have a lot of wiggle room right now. I am glad to see we got some guys in there at the end, actually throughout the game – guys like [wide receiver Russell] Shepard who jump in there, not only on special teams, and did a great job. He’s been doing a great job all season, but [he] jumps in on offense and does some things. Maybe it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but it shows up blocking and [in other ways]. We’ll just keep pushing everybody forward. [Tight end] Timmy Wright, again, came up with a big third down conversion. We’ve got to keep pushing him forward.”

(On cornerback Darrelle Revis’ hit which led to David’s interception)“He also showed his veteran savvy, because I’m watching that whole thing develop and I’m like, ‘Oh boy, this is going to be a penalty. It’s a blind shot, and it’s going to be a high hit,’ and he just put it right [in the receiver’s chest]. It was really, really a good [play]. [He’s] a smart player. Then he made some tackles. From my vantage point, on some of those perimeter plays, I know the defensive call and I know that the corner’s responsible to be in that last alley. [I’m thinking,] ‘Where’s the corner,’ and then all of a sudden Revis flashes and makes the tackles or shoves him out of bounds a couple times. He played all-around football today. [He] didn’t get his own interception, but he led to the result of a few and took some guys away on some deep balls. The one double-move – they said, ‘They got him last week on a double-move, let’s try it.’ Not twice.”

“We talked about that during the week, that we just keep putting him out there because, as we give him more, he performs a little bit better. You’ve got to earn that chance, and we think that he’s earning it, so we’re going to keep pushing him out there. Now, I can’t tell you without watching the tape how he did performing his job, but the production you see; I guess he had a sack or two, right? I saw the one play he was chasing after the quarterback full-speed, and laid out. That’s the kind of effort we’re looking for. We’ve talked about it – he’s got the physical make-up. You’ve got to remember, he came out [of college] as a junior, so this is a young kid playing in the National Football League. He’s only going to get better, so we’ve got to just keep moving him forward.”

QUARTERBACK MIKE GLENNON

(On having won four of the past five games)“I think we’re playing really good football right now and it all of it starts with our defense, with how many turnovers they’re forcing. Whenever they force that many turnovers and are playing that well, it puts the offense in great field position and, really, in this one, with the way our defense was playing, we did what we needed to do as an offense, but they took care of the rest. We’re playing really well right now, but we still have three games left that we want to finish strong. It’s nice to see the second half of the season we’re 4-1.”

(On the team being able rebound after their loss last week)“It was a tough loss last week, not the way we want to play football here, but to come back and have this performance, it’s good to see that we’re not going to give up, we’re going to keep preparing to win every game and then come out here and execute. We did a good job executing today, particularly the defense. After that tough loss it was nice to bounce back and have a big win.”

(On how the early 80-yard touchdown rush by running back Bobby Rainey set the tone for the rest of the game)“I think it set the tone immediately to have that big run to get up 7-0 and with only 15 seconds into the game, it immediately set the tone. Then our defense stared forcing all those turnovers and, like I said, offensively we need to score more touchdowns in the red zone, but with the way our defense is playing, we just really had to take care of the football and not let them get back into the game.”

(On not having a great game in terms of statistics)“They’re a really good defense, they’re leading the lead in sacks and to only give up one sack shows how well our offensive line did. Some of those balls I would like to have back, but we’ll see what happened [on film review]. Overall our offensive line played great, to get that first big run set the whole tone and then to prevent the No. 1 team in the league in sacks to one sack, that was really important for us.”

(On if playing against Buffalo quarterback EJ Manuel gave him extra motivation to win)“Me and EJ are really good friends, we’ve known each other for a long time now, it’s always great to see him and play against him, but it wasn’t really about all of that.”

RUNNING BACK BOBBY RAINEY

(On his 80-yard run)“Run just run, don’t look back just run.”

(On recording the longest running play in Tampa Bay history)

“It’s always great to go down in history, but just got to move forward and worry about the next game now. Right now I’m going to enjoy it and then it’s back to work for 49ers next game.”

(On keeping the confidence following two tough weeks)

“You got to. You got to keep pushing forward and keep working hard because eventually something will happen for you. You can’t get frustrated because frustration only will lead to something bad, so you got to keep moving forward period, you have to have a short memory.”

(On the Tampa Bay run-game mentality )

“You always have to be able to run the ball period, but that’s what we try to do here is run the ball, that’s what we’re going to do is run the ball and we did that today. Started out real good and then did a little bit of that in the second half. Just have to continue to work and get better and clean up everything.”

DEFENSIVE END DA’QUAN BOWERS

(On defense stepping up for the offense)“Whether they score a million points or whether they score ten points, if the offense on the other side of the ball can’t score on our side of the defense, they can’t win. That’s our motto, we just try to keep them out the end zone.”

(On total team defense)“I think everyone is happy with the performance. I’m sure there’s a lot of tape that we can work on and get better at, so we’ll go in tomorrow, critique it, correct it and put it to bed and get ready for San Francisco.”

LINEBACKER LAVONTE DAVID

(On making key plays)“Everybody was doing their correct assignment. I was in my correct drops and things like that. Got some hands on some footballs today. It’s all about just swarming to the football. We preach that day in and day out. When you swarm to the football, good things happen.”(On being just the seventh player in league history to record five sacks and five interceptions)“That’s a big deal, isn’t it? It’s just an accomplishment; I really don’t pay attention to the statistical things, but it’s just all a matter of just playing hard. I love playing this game. I try my best week in and week out and great things happen. Obviously, that’s a great accomplishment. This game of football has been around a long time. To be the seventh player on that list is amazing. Through God all things are possible. If it wasn’t for Him, I wouldn’t be in this position. Also if it wasn’t for my teammates doing what they’re supposed to do – everybody just flying to the football, getting hands on footballs, creating lanes for sack and things like that – I wouldn’t be in this position. I never single myself out; it’s a team football game. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t for my team.”

(On similarities between his plays on the football and Rondé Barber’s)“I wouldn’t say as much, but, I saw it happen with Rondé [Barber], so hopefully it transferred over to me, but it’s just a matter of swarming to the football. He was a guy that was always swarming to the football. Every time the ball was in the air he’d try and make a play on it. Defensively, that’s not just me, that’s what we all try to do. We try to create takeaways day in and day out. It all starts in practice.”

(On developing into a special kind of player)“I can’t really say. I’m just playing the game that I love. I just love the game of football. Every Sunday I’m going to come out and try my hardest, give my heart for the team and guys that’s on the field with me. ”

CORNERBACK JOHNTHAN BANKS

(On the complete team effort)“That’s why it’s a team [game]. When one side of the ball struggles, [the] other side is there to pick them up. We had their backs and they were able to put a couple points on the board. We played lights out and that was it.”

(On what helped the team record four interceptions)“We had a good pass rush today. We got after the quarterback. He threw up some balls, [we] put him in a rush [and] he threw us a couple of balls today.”

(On his interception)“Everybody is running dig [routes] these days. The dig is one of the hardest routes to cover. Kind of playing 2-man, I undercut the route and the ball was right there, so I did my thing.”

(On the importance of this win after last week’s loss)“It’s huge. Last week was embarrassing. This game is really what the Bucs are about. Our offense struggled a little bit, but we played great as a team.”

LINEBACKER MASON FOSTER

(On what has lead to the team’s recent success)“Everybody is working hard. Like I said all year we have a lot of great players on defense, a lot of high caliber players. Guys are just putting everything together, guys growing together. We are playing at a high level, even at practice. Coaches are making great calls and guys are making great plays. That’s all you’ve got to do is execute and keep playing hard and good things are going to happen.”

(On the performance of Buffalo rookie quarterback EJ Manuel)“He’s a good quarterback, we were just on it. We were on top of everything. We had a great week of practice. Guys were clicking. Everybody knew what was going to happen. I felt like we were playing a step faster; that’s a shout out to the coaches. Coaches had a great scheme, had a great thing going on that we worked on through practice. I feel like it showed today.”

(On the team’s performance the past few games)“[We’re] just trying to finish the season strong. We’ve got a great team and it hasn't really shown. Now is the time to finish out the season out strong, show people what we can really do. We slipped up here and there throughout the year but I feel like we’ve got the team to make things happen and we can show that. I felt like we have showed that the last couple weeks. Just keep playing hard.”

TACKLE DONALD PENN

(On the performance of quarterback Mike Glennon)“He’s getting better and better every week, I can’t say enough about that guy. He’s really making me proud, making our offense look good. If you guys could see the work he puts in all through the week, the determination in practice – if he doesn’t do something good in practice he’s calling the whole play back and we’ll run the play again in practice. For him to take charge like that is really showing. Everything is not [perfect] all the time but it is a big statement on how you bounce back and he bounced back well.”

(On Glennon’s leadership in practice)“He’s a perfectionist. If he doesn’t feel like it’s perfect, he wants to run it again. Sometimes Coach Schiano doesn’t want to run it again because of time and all that but if your quarterback wants to run it again so you [can] be perfect. That's a big testament to him turning into a leader trying to lead this offense. For a rookie, I haven’t [seen that], not from a rookie. For a rookie [it’s] a big testament and big statement.”

(On the performance of wide receiver Vincent Jackson)“He’s battled through being hurt, coming out here playing his butt off. You can’t ask for more from a guy who is out there playing hurt and had the type of game he had. One thing you guys probably don’t know is he gives great blocks downfield in the run game. That really helps us sprout runs. He’s having a Pro Bowl season and he’s kind of getting over shadowed but V-Jax is playing his butt off this year.”